Claude Anet

Born Jean Schopfer in Morges, Switzerland, in 1868, he wrote under the pen name Claude Anet and built a career that stretched well beyond literature. He studied in Paris, became known as a journalist and man of letters, and also made a name for himself in tennis, winning the French Championships in 1892.

That mix of sport, travel, and reporting shaped his books. He published novels, travel writing, and political reportage, including work inspired by journeys in Russia and the Near East. His best-known novel, Ariane, jeune fille russe (1920), later reached an even wider audience through screen adaptations.

Claude Anet died in Paris in 1931. Today he is remembered as an unusually versatile figure of French literary life: a novelist with a reporter’s curiosity, a cosmopolitan background, and a surprising second identity as an early tennis champion.